Top 35 Albert Szent-Györgyi Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

2. “Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

3. “Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

4. “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

5. “In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

6. “Think boldly. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Don’t miss small details, keep your eyes open and be modest in everything except your aims.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

7. “A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

8. “Without energy life would be extinguished instantaneously, and the cellular fabric would collapse.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

9. “Life is water, dancing to the tune of solids.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

10. “If I go out into nature, into the unknown, to the fringes of knowledge, everything seems mixed up and contradictory, illogical, and incoherent. This is what research does; it smooths out contradictions and makes things simple, logical, and coherent.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

11. “The key to happiness is not to get more, but to enjoy what we have and to fill the empty frame of our lives instead of enlarging it.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

12. “Whatever a man does he must do first in his mind.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

13. “We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and conditions, it uses the same old basic principles over and over again. There is no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

14. “A living cell requires energy not only for all its functions, but also for the maintenance of its structure.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

15. “Water, the Hub of Life. Water is its mater and matrix, mother and medium. Water is the most extraordinary substance! Practically all its properties are anomolous, which enabled life to use it as building material for its machinery. Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

16. “Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

17. “Nature is one. It is not divided into physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

18. “Here we stand in the middle of this new world with our primitive brain, attuned to the simple cave life, with terrific forces at our disposal, which we are clever enough to release, but whose consequences we cannot comprehend.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

19. “Research is not a systematic occupation but an intuitive artistic vocation.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

20. “I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. ‘God-nose’ was not more successful, so in the end ‘hexuronic acid’ was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called ‘ascorbic acid’ and I will use this name.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

21. “Through the ages, man’s main concern was life after death. Today, for the first time, we find we must ask questions about whether there will be life before death.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

22. “This paper of yours is so lightly written that you must have sweated terribly.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

23. “The American Cancer Society tried to ruin my research foundation.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

24. “Why does man behave like perfect idiot? This is the problem I wish to deal with.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

25. “The source of this energy is the sun’s radiation.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

26. “This oxidation of hydrogen in stages seems to be one of the basic principles of biological oxidation.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

27. “The real scientist is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

28. “Life is a wondrous phenomenon.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

29. “If any student comes to me and says he wants to be useful to mankind and go into research to alleviate human suffering, I advise him to go into charity instead. Research wants real egotists who seek their own pleasure and satisfaction, but find it in solving the puzzles of nature.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

30. “Knowledge is a sacred cow, and my problem will be how we can milk her while keeping clear of her horns.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

31. “I am the son of a small and far-away nation and the other laureates have all come from different countries from all over the world and we all were equally received here with signs of sympathy.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

32. “Investigations during the last few decades have brought hydrogen instead of carbon, and instead of CO2 water, the mother of all life, into the foreground.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

33. “A substance that makes you ill if you don’t eat it.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

34. “Science has helped us to understand and master ourselves, creating an elevated new form of human life, the wealth and beauty of which cannot be pictured today by the keenest imagination.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

35. “Senescent judges show how patriotic they are by passing out hard sentences for tearing up a draft card or following one’s conscience according to the principles established by our country at the Nuremburg trials.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi